Waiting lists for local authority houses are growing across County Wexford,” Mr O’ Connell said. “This is down to the recession and the fact that social housing spending has been slashed by 19% since Fine Gael and Labour entered power in 2011. There are 98,313 households currently lingering on social housing waiting lists across this state.

When you consider these figures, it’s hard to understand why we have multiple boarded up, abandoned buildings across New Ross town. The situation is particularly bad in Mary Street, Bewley Street and Barack lane. The buildings are a eyesore on an picturesque town and a threat to health and safety.

The buildings left abandoned in Barrack Lane are in a very bad state. The gardens are now completely overgrown, ivy is climbing the walls and rubbish is being dumped outside the bottom apartments. I would have to ask why the town council has allowed this situation to develop in the first place.

New Ross has shown what it is capable of during the recent JFK festival. A town of this merit should not be left with any run down areas and urgent action needs to be taken to rectify this now.